Apparatus and method for cutting deep-frozen foodstuff

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and a method for cutting deep-frozen foodstuff, in particular fish, in the form of square plates 4 into a plurality of square rods 15. The apparatus consists of a circular saw which is provided above a closed table top 1, and on the shaft of which are clamped, between spacer disks 6, individual saw blades 5. With respect to the thickness of the plates 4, the circular saw blades 5 have a large diameter. Stiffening spacer disks 6 clamp circular saw blades 5 except for an outer rim corresponding to the thickness of the plate 4. By these measures, relatively thin circular saw blades 5 gain a sufficient stiffness at their outer rim. This arragement reduces cutting operations and results in a small amount of chipped foodstuff material. The chipped material is not lost for the final product since it remains above the closed table top 1 and is collected by a following pressure roll 9 and deposited on the upper surface of the rods 15.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention basically relates to an apparatus and method for cuttingdeep-frozen foodstuff in the form of square bodies into a plurality ofsmaller square units by means of a multi-blade circular saw.

More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus forcutting deep-frozen foodstuff, in particular fish, in the form of squarebodies such as plates into a plurality of smaller square units such assmall rods, comprising a table on which the square bodies are shiftableby means of a conveyor means, a circular saw whose shaft is providedwith a plurality of blades which are arranged in the moving path of thesquare bodies and which are clamped between stiffening disks, with thediameter of said the blades being large with respect to the thickness ofthe square bodies, as well as hold-down rolls engaging the upper side ofthe square bodies, in particular pressure rolls.

The invention further relates to a method for cutting deep-frozenfoodstuff, in particular meat, fish and vegetables, in the form ofsquare bodies, such as plates into smaller units, such as small rods,using a circular saw comprising one or several saw blades arranged inparallel adjacent relationship in front of which each body is shiftablein the forward direction on a table during the cutting operation.

Some foodstuff, such as fish, is deep frozen into blocks and then cutprogressively into smaller square units, such as bars, plates and smallrods. It is usual to use belt and circular saws for this purpose. Forcutting the square plates into a plurality of square rods, devices ofthe above mentioned type are used.

In a prior apparatus of the above mentioned type (GB-PS No. 949 495),several circular saw blades are provided and arranged in parallelrelationship to each other on a common shaft with their drive below thetable on which the plates are shifted. In the table, parallel slots areprovided through which the circular saw blades protrude. Since theproducer wants to cut as many small rods as possible from the block, hewill try to respect the prescribed minimum weight with as little loss aspossible. This is only possible when the parts are cut into a precisesquare form, which requires stiff saw blades. However, the stiffness ofa saw blade depends on its thickness. Consequently, a minimum thicknessof the saw blades, the periphal edges of which are generally equippedwith diamond chips, should be maintained. In an apparatus of the abovementioned type, circular saw blades are used which have a diameter of125 mm and a thickness of 0.8 to 0.95 mm at the periphery.

Such devices present a number of drawbacks: When cutting with such thicksaw blades, an important part of the foodstuff is chipped and is lost inweight if appropriate countermeasures are not taken. One of these priormeasures consists of providing rollers which are disposed above theplates transported on the table and which collect a part of the chippedfoodstuff centrifuged against them by the saw blades and convey thechipped foodstuff back to the surface of the plates cut into rods. Thispermits a reduction of the cutting loss. But a big part of the cutfoodstuff goes under the table and is lost. Another drawback of priordevices is the output which is presently no longer sufficient.Presently, outputs are required of at least 100 cycles (plates to becut) per minute. Such an output requires a 30 kw-motor for a saw of theabove mentioned type with 20 to 24 saw blades making 8,000 revs perminute. For such a cutting performance of the prior device, there isproduced an even bigger cutting loss, and furthermore there is alsoproduced heat during the cutting operation which has to be compensatedlater by renewed freezing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is based on the object to improve the apparatusand method of the above mentioned type in such a way that less cuttingloss is produced.

According to the invention, this object is solved by the fact that theblades of the circular saw are located above the table plate or topwhich is closed i.e., is solid or contains no openings. In thisarrangement only an outer edge of the blades corresponding to thethickness of the square bodies should protrude between the disks.

Due to the closed table plate (top), which includes recesses of a smalldepth for receiving the apexes of the saw blades, the total amount ofthe cut stuff remains on the table surface. Since the blades arearranged above the table plate, it is possible due to the stiffeningspacer disks, to clamp them over a greater range than in an arrangementbelow the table in which the thickness of the table plate has also to betaken into account. This means that despite the larger diameter and thesmaller blade thickness, a higher stiffness is achieved. The small bladethickness leads to little cutting loss and thus to reduced cutting workwhich is advantageous in many aspects. The reduced cutting work leads toless cooling loss. Consequently, later recooling is in general notnecessary. Furthermore, loading of the bearings of the saw shaft isreduced, so that they may be dimensioned lighter. Finally, the saw canbe operated with lower rotational speed and with less electric energy.

Practice has shown that when realizing the inventive teaching, it ispossible to operate with saw blades the diameter of which is 11/2 to 2times larger than that of the above mentioned conventional saw blade.The thickness of the blades may be selected to be one third smaller thanusual.

In order to recover as much as possible of the cut foodstuff, thedownholders provided at the upper side of the table plate, designed aspressure rolls, act as collecting elements aginst which the cutfoodstuff is projected and which press it onto the small square units.The downholders designed as pressure rolls are preferably provided inthe wedges located between the upper side of the table plate and thecircular saw blades in the transporting direction of the square bodiesin front and behind the circular saw.

In the method according to the invention, the above object is solved bythe features that the cutting operation is performed from above, andthat the cut goods produced during cutting and transported andcentrifuged away by the circular saw are collected above the circularsaw and redeposited behind the circular saw onto the surface of thesmaller units.

In the same way as in the apparatus, in the method the chipped goodsalso remain on the table plate or top on which the square bodies areconveyed. Consequently, the total amount of chipped goods, as far as itdoes not remain any way on the smaller units, may be easily collectedand redeposited by appropriate measures onto the surface of the smallerunits. Apart from the loss due to humidity vaporized during cutting, therecovery of chipped goods is perfect.

In order to perfectly guide the square bodies during the cuttingoperation, it is possible to provide, in addition to the downholderswhich are in particular pressure rolls, further downholders or hold-downdevices consisting of spring loaded guide fingers extending between theblades. These guide fingers are preferably guided in peripheral groovesof the spacer disks.

According to another feature of the invention, there is provided, at theoutput side of the blades, a collecting roll or collecting tape forchipped foodstuff engaging the upper side of the bodies cut into smallunits. Preferably, the collecting roll is driven synchronously with theconveyer means.

Finally, for further recovery of chipped foodstuff, a collecting hoodmay be provided above the saw blades at the side turned away from thetable. At or in the collecting hood, air jet nozzles are preferablyarranged in such a way that their air blows the foodstuff collected bythe collecting hood to the output of the circular saw. The collectinghood should be divided into individual chambers in which are arrangedseveral, but preferably only one saw blade. This permits, in particularwhen using blowing air, improved recovery of chipped foodstuff.

When using an air jet, which helps to improve the recovery of chippedfoodstuff, it is possible to realize a series of other advantageousmeasures. For instance, it is possible to add blending agents to the airjet. As the blending agent, water vapour or mist may be used forinstance. By means of such blending agent, it is even possible to addthe humidity lost during the cutting operation so that weight lossduring cutting is further minimized. But it is also possible to add aspice to the air jet. The spice may be solid or liquid, for instancevinegar.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be explained below in detail with references to thedrawings wherein

FIG. 1 is a schematic side elevation of a preferred embodiment of theapparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view along line I--I of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a top view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawing figures, square elongated bodies, inparticular plates 4, consisting of deep-frozen foodstuff, in particularfish, are flatly stacked in a vertical chute not represented in thedrawing. Below the lower opening of said chute, a table top or plate 1is provided. By means of a plurality of entrainment elements 2 supportedby a circulating chain belt 3 of a conveyor device and extending throughslots provided in table top 1 behind plates 4, said plates 4 areindividually fed to the circular saw. The slots in the table top 1 endin front of the circular saw. This means that in the area of thecircular saw, the table top 1 is closed, i.e., it contains no throughopenings or slots.

The circular saw consists of a plurality of individual blades 5 arrangedon a common drive shaft and kept in spaced relationship by spacer disks6. The spacer disks 6 extend in the radial direction so as to leave onlya narrow free rim of blades 5, the width of which rim correspondsapproximately to the thickness of plates 4. The apexes of saw blades 5extend only over a small distance into shallow grooves provided in tabletop 1, thus allowing the blades 5 to perfectly cut plates 4.

In the conveying direction of plates 4, both in front of and behind thecircular saw, small follower pressure rolls 7 and 8 are arranged in thewedges or wedge shaped areas formed by the upper side of the plates 4and saw blades 5. The pressure roll 8 is followed by a larger pressureroll 9 driven synchronously with the chain belt 3 for the entrainmentelements 2. The smaller pressure rolls 7,8 ensure that during thecutting operation the plates 4 are securely held on table top 1. For thesame purpose fingers 11 extend between saw blades 5. Said fingers 11 areguided in grooves 10 formed on the peripheral surface of the spacerdisks 6 and are supported by a spring loaded holder 12.

The larger pressure roll 9 not only serves to guide plates 4 cut intorods 15, but also to deposit and compress collected chipped material, orcompress already deposited chipped material, on the surface of the rods15. For collecting chipped material centrifuged by the saw blades 5,there is also provided a hood 13 enclosing the periphery of the sawblades 5 at the side turned away from the table top 1. In the hood 13,blowing nozzles 14 generate an air jet for conveying collected chippedmaterial into the area of the pressure roll 9, thus allowing the latterto compress said chipped material on the surface of the cut rods 15.

The inventive apparatus permits the cutting of deep-frozen foodstuffwith very little chipping loss and without substantial loss of coldnesswhile respecting a predetermined geometry. The unavoidable amount ofchipped material produced is substantially recovered and fed back to thefinal product.

What is claimed is:
 1. In an apparatus for cutting deep-frozenfoodstuff, in particular fish, in the form of square bodies, such asplates, into a plurality of smaller square units such as small rods,comprising a table on which the square bodies are shiftable by means ofa conveyor means, a circular saw having a shaft which is provided with aplurality of saw blades arranged in the moving path of the square bodiesand clamped between stiffening disks, with the diameter of said bladesbeing large with respect to the thickness of the square bodies to becut, and hold-down pressure rolls engaging the upper surface of thesquare bodies; the improvement wherein: the blades (5) of the circularsaw are located above the table (1), at least the portion of the tabletop beneath the circular saw is closed, and means, disposed at least inpart at the periphery of said saw blades, are provided for collectingparticles of foodstuff produced during a cutting operation and fordepositing the collected particles behind the saw and on the uppersurface of cut smaller units.
 2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1,wherein only an outer edge of the blades (5) corresponding to thethickness of the square bodies being cut (4) protrudes from between thestiffening disks (6).
 3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein saidhold-down pressure rolls (7,8) are provided in the wedge shaped areasformed between the upper surface of the square bodies (4) and the edgeof said blades (5) of the circular saw in the moving direction of thesquare bodies (4), both in front of and behind the circular saw. 4.Apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising a further hold-downdevice for the square bodies including spring loaded guide fingers (11)extending between the saw blades (5).
 5. Apparatus as defined in claim4, wherein said guide fingers (11) are guided in grooves (10) formed onthe periphery of the stiffening disks (6).
 6. Apparatus as defined inclaim 1, wherein said means for collecting includes a collecting rollprovided at the output side of the circular saw and engaging the uppersurface of square bodies cut into the smaller square units (15). 7.Apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein said collecting roll (9) isdriven synchronously with the conveyor means (2,3).
 8. Apparatus asdefined in claim 1, wherein said means for collecting includes acollecting hood provided over the portion of the periphery of the blades(5) of the circular saw facing away from said top of said table. 9.Apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein said collecting hood (8) isprovided with air jet nozzles (14) arranged such that their air blowsthe foodstuff particles collected by said collecting hood (13) to theoutput side of the circular saw.
 10. Apparatus as defined in claim 8,wherein said collecting hold (13) is subdivided into individul chambers.11. Apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein each said saw bladeextends into a respective one of said individual chambers.
 12. In amethod for cutting deep-frozen foodstuff, in particular meat, fish andvegetables including providing deep-frozen foodstuff in the form ofsquare bodies such as plates, and cutting the square bodies into smallerunits such as small rods, by means of a circular saw comprising severalsaw blades arranged in parallel adjacent relationship in front of whicheach square body is shiftable in the forward direction on a table duringthe cutting operation; the improvement wherein said step of cutting isperformed entirely from above the table, and further comprising thesteps of collecting the cut foodstuff particles which are transportedand centrifuged away by the circular saw above the circular saw, anddepositing the collected particles behind the circular saw on thesurface of the cut smaller units.
 13. Method as defined in claim 11,wherein said step of depositing includes transporting the collected cutfoodstuff particles by means of an air jet to the depositing place. 14.Method as defined in claim 12, wherein the air jet is admixed with ablending agent.
 15. Method as defined in claim 13, wherein the blendingagent is water vapour or mist.
 16. Method as defined in claim 13,wherein the blending agent is a spice.
 17. Apparatus as defined in claim9, wherein said collecting hood (13) is subdivided into individualchambers.
 18. Apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein each said sawblade extends into a respective one of said individual chambers.